Thread: Bears Anticipate Raiders Will Blitz Hanie............

Bears anticipating Raiders will blitz Hanie
By Sean Jensen sjensen@suntimes.com November 24, 2011 9:24PM
Updated: November 25, 2011 2:16AM


The Oakland Raiders’ defense doesn’t distinguish itself in many statistical categories. It’s ranked 24th overall, 25th against the run and 20th against the pass. But the Raiders are tied for sixth in the NFL with 28 sacks and feature one of the faster defenses in the league.

The Bears are aware of that and expect the Raiders to blitz quarterback Caleb Hanie, who will be making his first NFL start Sunday.

‘‘Probably the blueprint of how they’re going to play us, I’m guessing, is what they did against that rookie quarterback [Christian Ponder] in Minnesota, where they pressured a lot more than they had been pressuring,’’ offensive line coach Mike Tice said. ‘‘I look for them to do something like that to us. And they’ve got a nice blitz package. We’ll be ready for it. ‘‘We’re 11, 12 weeks into the season. We’ve seen just about everything. There are only so many blitzes.’’

In a 27-21 victory Sunday against the Vikings, the Raiders sacked Ponder five times and pressured him five other times. Remarkably, none of those came from six-time Pro Bowl selection Richard Seymour.

No practice for Devin

Return man and receiver Devin Hester (shin) was added to the Bears’ injury report and didn’t practice Thursday. Neither did cornerback D.J. Moore (ankle).

Coach Lovie Smith was optimistic about Hester but pessimistic about Moore. ‘‘He should be ready to go on Sunday,’’ Smith said of Hester. ‘‘D.J. Moore is getting better, but he’s still not looking good for this week.’’

Laptad released

The Bears released rookie long snapper Jake Laptad, whom they had signed Tuesday, and replaced him with veteran Chris Massey, who played in 135 games in nine seasons with the
St. Louis Rams. Massey signed a one-year deal.